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Exploring the politics of
parking in San Francisco

February
12, 2009 -- Parking
is a contentious issue in San Francisco, with those who want to reduce
parking provisions pitted against those who argue for more. In a new
paper, Assistant Professor of Geography Jason Henderson unravels the
city's parking battles and finds that the debate is about far more than
parking spaces.

"San Francisco's parking debate is not just about parking," Henderson
said. "It is a contest over how the city should be configured and organized,
and for whom."

His paper highlights how the provision of parking consumes vast amounts
of space and pushes up housing prices. For example, a typical off-road
parking space takes up approximately 350 square feet when room to maneuver
in and out of the space is included. This is a comparable size to many
San Francisco offices and living spaces. Henderson estimates that on
average each off-road parking space costs a developer $50,000 to $100,000,
a cost which is passed on to the homebuyer. But in most San Francisco
neighborhoods, providing parking is something developers can't avoid
because city planning laws require each new residential unit to have
an off-road parking space.

Above: a montage of photographs showing San Francisco's
Hayes Valley neighborhood as it is today with its street-level
stores and cafes.

A manipulated photograph projecting what the same section of Hayes
Street would look like if each dwelling was required to have one
off-road car parking space.

Credit: courtesy of the San Francisco Planning Department

"This means that neighborhoods like the iconic North Beach simply
could not be built today," Henderson said. Mandatory parking provision
changes the nature of the streetscape. The lower floors of new buildings
are likely to contain parking garages rather than storefronts and cafes,
and garage entrances take away street parking and limit where trees can
be planted on sidewalks.

Based on four years of research into San Francisco's planning and electoral
process, Henderson's paper provides a map of the city's political landscape
around parking. Henderson's diagnosis is that San Francisco has reached
a political stalemate where making the city more bike- and public-transport-friendly
will mean taking away the privileges of cars.

Despite the parking policy controversy , Henderson believes San
Francisco can set an example for other American cities. "At least
in San Francisco, contesting car space is on the table," Henderson
said. "That makes it an intriguing bellwether for other places.
To convince people that parking is not necessary, people will have to
see it to believe it. San Francisco is poised to be the place to see
to believe."

"The spaces of parking: mapping the politics of mobility in San
Francisco" was published in the January issue of the journal Antipode.